About General Aviation News Staff

Comments

Unfortunately, clearing the runway doesn’t work if you don’t know they are there, and deer will always surprise you.

Deer Alerts are big help. Yes, those little whistles that you put on your car. I know they may not be “approved” but they can’t be anymore of an issue than a go pro camera mount.

Not familiar with Deer Alerts, they are little plastic whistles like dog whistles that you mount on an area of your car where air will pass through, like the grill. When deer hear you coming, they just stand still to see what the noise is. They really work. I used to do a lot of driving in the Colorado mountains late at night. With my big driving lights on I could see lots of deer and elk roaming about on either side of the road. After I installed the Deer Alerts I noticed that when I went by the animals were all standing still looking behind me to see what the noise was.

From my experience, mule deer become accustomed to aircraft and (like teenagers who wear black at night when jay walking on busy streets) show limited to no concern. The best course is to overfly and LOOK for deer… But! NEVER assume a flyby will clear the runway. If deer are present… find another runway.

Ouch, that’s expensive, I know the feeling that runs through you when you see wildlife on the runway. Many times I’ve encountered this, once I had to hop over a coyote….oftentimes I could go around, you have to expect the unexpected and sometimes its shear luck.